And it was a text message at 7am that dubbed Wodonga Senior Secondary College’s Ted Elkington dux.

Mr Elkington received an ATAR of 97.9, the highest in the school.

“I woke up about 6.45am and I was a bit anxious so I needed to take my mind off it,” he said.

Mr Elkington said his score meant he was one step closer to his dream of studying medicine at Monash University.

“I was glad I got the score I needed for an interview,” he said.

Kristen Nichol was among the other students who received their ATARs and achieved an 82.6, which will lead her into music studies next year.

While the duo was relieved by their results, they said others had been disappointed.

“But we’ve always been told there are other ways to get to where you want to be so they will just start looking at other options,” Ms Nichol said.

“I guess we’re just relieved because we’ve done all we can do.”

Mr Elkington said after 13 years of school the “whole thing seemed anti-climactic”.

College principal Vern Hilditch said he was again delighted with the results.

“There were some very high achievements and we are very happy for the students concerned,” he said.

Mr Hilditch said regardless of how students performed, they were encouraged to talk to their school about the results.

“There is now more of an emphasis on following your passion for a particular course you want to do,” he said.

“We need to stress it more and more because there are so many opportunities, no matter what field you want to get into.

“Just get talking to people and to some degree follow the passion you have in regards to what you want the next stage of your life to be about.”

More than 47,000 Victorian students received an ATAR and Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre director Catherine Wills said the trends seen throughout the state over past years had continued, with girls outperforming the boys.

“The average ATAR for girls was 64.4 and for boys it was 62.2,” she said.

“However at the highest level, 22 boys received the top ATAR of 99.95, compared with 11 girls.”

NSW students will receive their ATARs tomorrow.